Typing aid



April 20, 1965 w, BROWN 3,179,227

TYPING AID Filed Jan. 10, 1963 2 Sheets-$heet 1 IN VENTOR.

/% 3 W////am 1?. Brown Lil-u ATTORNEY April 20, 1965 Filed Jan. 10, 1963 W. R. BROWN TYPING AID ZSQ / H 7? I T 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 W/ 0/77 E. 5/0 wn INVENTOR.

United States Patent 3,179,227 TYPING AID William R. Brown, 3713 Sohey Drive, Corpus Christi, Tex. Filed Jan. 10,1963, Ser. No. 250,613 1 Claim. (Cl. 197-190) This invention relates in general to an aid to typing, and particularly to an improved aid to properly locating a page of paper within a typewriter relative to typewritten characters already on the page.

The most obvious need for such an aid arises when the typist desires to replace an erased character or to insert a skipped character on a page which has been removed trom the typewriter. In such a case, and without an. aid of some type, even the expert typist can only approximate the proper location of the character to be added by using the line indicator of the typewriter as a guide. Furthermore, the need for an aid may arise even though the page is not removed from the typewriter because there is often slippage of the paper as it is moved vertically in the cam system comprised of the platen and the smaller rollers located at the underside of the platen; and, of course, this operation is necessary in any case to permit correction of a typographical error.

There are still other instances in which a typist desires to locate the page relative to typewritten characters thereon after it has either been removed from the typewriter or, in the case of another character to be added, moved vertically from the line on which the missing character is to be placed. For example, it may be necessary to align the margin of a typewritten page after it has been removed for purposes of expediency or necessity and later replaced in the typewriter for completion.

An object of this invention is to provide an aid which permits the typist to locate the page with greater accuracy than with prior aids of this general type.

Another object is to provide such an aid which is of inexpensive construction and which may be sold as an accessory for a typewriter without the necessity for alterin g the typewriter in any Way.

Still another object is to provide an aid of the type above described which is extremely simple to use in that it requires no complicated orientation insofar as the typewriter and page are concerned.

These and other objects are accomplished, in accordance with the present invention, by an aid which cornprises a thin, pliable sheet of transparent plastic material which is insertable between the line indicator of the typewriter and the page on the typewriter platen and into a position to record the imprint of a key of the typewriter. Ordinarily, this key carries the character to be added to the page, although, when certain characters are to be added, it may be preferable to record the imprint of a key identical to that on the page adjacent the area to which the character is to be added.

At any rate, means are provided for holding the plastic sheet against the page so that the typewriter may be adjusted to permit the page to be moved relative to the sheet to dispose the imprinted character eitherover the location on the page to which [the missing character is to be added or over the identical character adjacent to the desired location on the page, as the case may be. The typewriter is then adjusted to hold the page secure against the platen and the aid is removed from between the line indicator and the page to permit the missing character to be typed on the page. Obviously, in the second case above described, the platen must be moved over one or more spaces after the page has been secured. although this does not introduce an element of error since the slippage previously mentioned occurs only during vertical movement of the platen. a i i ice As is true of most all thin plastic material, the sheet is sufliciently soft that the ordinary stroke of a typewriter key is sufficient to record its character thereon. On the other hand, the imprint is temporary in that it may be erased or rubbed off so as to permit the sheet to be used repeatedly without undue confusion. Furthermore, although the sheet is small enough to be easily handled, it is nevertheless large enough toprovide a large surface area over which imprints may be made upon repeated usage.

The means for holding the plastic sheet against the. page preferably comprises one or more pads of spongy material disposed between the line indicator of the typewriter and the side of the sheet which faces the line indicator. More particularly, the pad is secured to the sheet so that the aid is integrated into a single device which may be sold as an accessory for existing typewriters. At any rate, the pad issufiiciently thick to hold the sheet against the page and, when it is secured to the sheet, the face of the pad adjacent theline indicator has a greater coetficient of friction than-the opposite side of the sheet so that the page may be moved relative to the sheet for the purposes previously described.

In the drawings, wherein like reference characters are used throughout to designate like parts:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the upper portion of a typewriter having a page of paper disposed about the platen thereof and a typing aid constructed in accordance with the present invention inserted into a position between the line indicator of the typewriter and the page for recording an imprint from one of the typewriter keys;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of the device 7 removed from the typewriter;

FIG. 3 is a horizontal cross section of the device of FIG. 2, upon a still furtherenlarged scale; i i

FIGS. 4A through 4C illustrate the sequential steps of adding the letter h to a page between the letters t and e in accordance with one method of usingthe device; and

FIGS. 5A through 5C illustrate the sequential steps of adding the numeral 9 to a page between the numerals 8 and 3 in accordance with'another method of using the device.

With reference now to the detailed description of the above-mentioned figures, the typewriter 10 shown in FIG. 1 comprises, as is true generally of all typewriters, a case 11 for the keys, a carriage 12 movable horizontally across the case, and a platen 13 mounted on the carriage 12 and adapted to be rolled about its horizontal axisby means of a knob 14. One or more pages 15 of paper are adapted to berolled about the platen 13 and held thereagainst by means of a bar 16. A line indicator 17 is carried by the case 11 withits upper edge extending along the lower edge of the line of characters to be typed on the page. Thus, as well known in this art, the keys in the case 11 strike the ribbon 13 over the page just above the line'indicator and intermediate the ribbon guides 18a; The typewriter it) also includes a lever lfl for'releasing' the page 15 from the platen 13 so that it may be moved horizontally and vertically with respect thereto. Conventionally, there is a button (not shown) arranged on the outer side of the left platen knob in the same relative position asthe protuberance 2 on the right platen knob 14 so as to be depressed to permit the platen to turn freely, without regard to the ratchet arrangement (not shown) that normally controls movement of the platen in specific units of one or more vertical spaces. An additionallever 21 isprovided to release the carriage for horizontal movement of the platen independently of the normal horizontal spacing due "to the stroking of the typewriter keys. 7 i i As best shown in FIGS. 2 and'3, the typing aid 22 comprises a sheet 23 of any commercially available resinous 'of the typewriter key during its normal stroke, although .suiiiciently hard and glossy to permit each imprint to be erased or wiper off of its surface. While the sheet should not be so thin as to be difficult to handle or to be easily cut up by re eated imprints, it should be snfficiently thin to eliminate any problem of perspective between the imprint to be made on the front side of the sheet and the character to be typed on the page at the back side of the sheet. I have found that a sheet of 0.007 inch thickness is quite satisfactory for these purposes.

Obviously, thesheet should have sufficient lateral dimensions to provide a surface 24 on the front side thereof adjacent the line indicator 17 (see FIG. 1) which is large enough to record imprints over a substantial area. It should also be sutliciently large to provide a backing for a pair of pads 25 of spongy material, such as plastic foam, secured by a suitable adhesive to the front side of the sheet on each opposite side of imprint-recording surface 24. As shown in the drawings, each such pad extends laterally from its inner side edge adjacent the surface 24 to the outer side edge of the sheet 23; and in order to hold the page 15, regardless of the position in which the aid is disposed when the imprint is made, each of the pads 25 extends from substantially the lower edge to the upper edge of the sheet 23. With the aid constructed in this manner, the sheet may be approximately 2 /2 inches wide and 2 inches in height between its upper and lower edges. With a sheet of this size, each pad 25 is approximately 1 inch wide, so that surface 24 intermediate the pads is approximately 6. inch wide.

. As previously described, the purpose of the pads 25 is to hold the sheet against the page 15 and to prevent the sheet from moving with the page when the page is moved into a position to dispose the imprint on the sheet over the locationon the paper to which the missing character is to be added. Thus, inan uncompressed state, the pad should be slightly thicker than the space between the line indicator 1'] and the page. On the other hand, the pad should not be so thick as to prevent it from being easily inserted between the line indicator and the sheet, and into the position shown in FIG. 1. Thesurface of this spongy material has a greater coefiicient of friction than the surface of the plastic sheet material so that the ront side of the aid frictionally engages the line indicator 17 with greater force than does the back side of the sheet 23 with the page 15 of paper. Thus, after the imprint has been made upon the surface 24 of the sheet, either the paper release lever 19. or the variable line spacer button is brought into use to achieve the desired degree of movement of the page of paper relative to the sheet.

I have found that a spongy material approximately A inch thick is quite suitable for this purpose. Thus, when the sheet is properly inserted, the pads 25 will be compressed to hold the back side of the sheet against the page 15. Since pads are balanced on both sides of the imprint-receiving surface 24 of the sheet, this compression will be substantially uniform so as to minimize the likelihood of any slippage between the aid and the line indicator.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, as well as shown in each of P168. 4A and A, there is a strip as of bordering material which extends between the upper and lower edges of the sheet 23 and the adjacent ends of the pads 25 to provide graduated edges for facilitating the insertion of the aid into operative position. This bordering material may comprise any suitable plastic adhesive tape, and, in an aid having the dimensions previously. described, may be about A inch from its upper'to its lower level. Thus, the opposite ends of the pads 25 may terminate about inch short of the upper and lower ends of the sheet 213 A so that the strip extends over about 3 inch of each of the sheet and pad.

In use, the lower edge of the aid 22 is inserted between the line indicator l7 and the page of paper so that the upper edge of the line indicator is disposed above the edge of the bordering strip 2-6 and the surface 24- is in position to be struck by a typewriter key. Obviously, the preferred placement of the aid will depend upon the wear on the surface zddue to previous usage.

At any rate, when the character to be added is a letter, the pa may be moved into a position relative to the line indicator so as to dispose the location to which the character letter is to be added close to the area to be struckby' the key. As shown in FIG. 4A, the aid 22 is then inserted into place and the key in the typewriter carrying the letter 11 is struck so as to imprint the h on the surface 2 As shown in FIG. 4A, this imprint will normally be out of alignment with the adjacent letters t and e, in this case slightly above the location desired on the page of paper. In fact, when carbon copies are being made, it may be preferably to move the platen into a position in which the imprint is made over a marginal area on the pages because the imprint may otherwise cause the carbon copies to be smudged.

The page is then released to permit it to be raised slightly or otherwise adjusted in order to bring the letters t ant e into proper alignment with the lower edge of the imprint 11 on surface 24-, as shown in FIG. 4B. In most cases, it will be found that the aid conforms to the contour of the page on the platen in the area struck by the key. If there is some variance, however, the page may be moved from under the hold-down bar 16 and raised against the side of the sheet as the page is properly located with respect to the imprint on the sheet. The paper is again secured by release of the suitable lever on the typewriter and the aid 22 is removed so as to expose the space between the letters t and e on the page of paper to receive the typed letter h, as shown in FIG. 4C.

In an alternative use of the device, which is particularly well suited for adding a number having a lower edge normally disposed beneath the lower edge of other numbers, the page of paper is adjusted in generally the same manner described in connection with FIGS. 4A to 4C. Thus, as illustrated in FIGS. 5A to 5G, it may be desired to place the numeral 9 between adjacent numerals 8 and 3, In this case, an imprint of the numeral 8 is recorded on the surface 24 of the device close to the existing numeral 8 upon the page of paper, except in the case of carbon copies. The page is then released, as in the method previously described, and the numeral 8 on the page of paper is moved into a position directly beneath the imprint of the 8 on the surface 24- of the aid. At this time, the paper is again locked in place, the aid is removed from between the line indicator and the page of paper, and, as indicated in FIG. 5C,

the spacer of the typewriter is struck to move the platen one space to the left, to dispose space between the "8 and 3 appearing on the page in position to receive the typewritten numeral 9.

' A margin of a page which has been removed from the typewriter may be reali ned in a manner, obvious from the foregoing description. In this latter case, it may be desirable to select two or more widely spaced characters from the page for recording purposes. l

, From the foregoing it will be seen that this invention is one well adapted to attain all of the ends andobiects her inabove set forth, together with other advantages which are obvious and which are inherent to the article.

It will be understood that certain features and subcombinations are of utility and may be employed without reference to otherfeatures and subcombinations. i This is contemplated by and is within the scope of the claim. As many possible embodiments may be made of the invention without depa from the scope thereof, it is to be understood that all matter herein set forth or shown.

in the accompanying drawings is to be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

The invention having been described, what is claimed 1s:

A typing aid, comprising a thin, pliable sheet of transparent plastic material, spaced pads of spongy material secured to one side of the sheet, said sheet being insertable between the line indicator of a typewriter and a page of paper on the typewriter platen to dispose the pads against the line indicator and the area therebetween in position to temporarily record the imprint of a key of the typewriter, the outer surface of said pads of spongy material having a greater coefficient of friction than the other side of said sheet, said pads extending from substantially adjacent the lower edge thereof, and a strip of bordering material extending between each upper and .stantially adjacent the upper edge of the sheet to sub- 15 lower edge of the sheet and the adjacent ends of the pads, respectively, to provide graduate edges for facilitating insertion of said aid.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS ROBERT E. PULFREY, Primary Examiner.

WILLIAM B. PENN, EUGENE R. CAPOZIO,

Examiners. 

